Only someone coming to sunny California expecting a leisurely, restful fall weekend could possibly be disappointed by the granddaddy of nostalgia meets. Though officially a three-day affair, the 22nd Bakersfield Reunion was Hot Rod Heaven from Wednesday’s move-in through Sunday’s final rounds. Camped in the pits for the duration, we didn’t get much sleep.

2/16Free fun Friday night’s official off-track activity at Bakersfield’s DoubleTree opens with inductions into the NHRA Museum’s California Hot Rod Hall of Fame and closes with blown-fuel cackling—all at no charge to fans. Somewhere in that nitro-snorting mob is Half Moon Bay Drag Strip’s longtime starter, Andy Brizio, whose famous purple roadster seems to be everywhere.

Famoso Raceway doesn’t officially open until Friday, yet Thursday offered early birds a car show, swap meet, and vendor midway, all nicely spiced by impromptu pitside cackling -- with no admission charge. Friday night, the center of the universe shifted 20 miles south to Bakersfield’s DoubleTree Hotel for California Hot Rod Hall of Fame inductions (putting the spotlight this year on Tommy Allen, Roy Brizio, Jim DeFrank, Larry Dixon, John Rasmussen, and grand marshal Butch Leal). Saturday served up final qualifying, the first round of pro eliminations, six genuine AA/Fuel Altereds, and slowed only for too-frequent oil downs. The traditional, push-start cacklefest finally flamed out around 10:00 p.m., signaling thousands of fans to hurdle fences and guard walls to join the still-smoldering cacklers on the sticky dragstrip.

Dirty Deal

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Dirty Deal It was a photo ad of a Model T body in the dirt (asking price: $375) that started Robert Casada, 38 (right), and Steve Poe, 43, on the improbable journey that brought Gary Cochran’s long-lost Mr. C fuel modified roadster back to Bakersfield. “When we went to pick up the body,” Robert recalls, “Ed Howtz said, ‘You wanna see the chassis that goes with it? I was gonna cut it up.’” The axle, motor plate, hubs, upholstery, a narrowed Olds rear with axles, and even the front tires somehow survived, too. George Scarpenti came up with ultrarare parts that Mike Kuhl required to roughly duplicate Cochran’s rare blown Ford, and Mister C himself was in the seat as his old car pushed to life for perhaps the first time since 1967, when Gary sold the original 427 to a boat racer.

Buick Boys

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Tommy Ivo was pulled right into Bob DeBurn’s chromed-out nailhead, naturally. The Copperhead rail was making its first track appearance in five decades. The Fab Shop of Prescott, Arizona, got the restoration job after a chassis hanging on a local wall was recognized from a 1960 Rods Illustrated “little book” as the homebuilt slingshot campaigned by Turk, Woolsley & Cox starting around 1957.

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Museum Piece

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Museum Piece Rare, vintage speed equipment was everywhere, but we’re always surprised to see Algon injectors, let alone a plumbed, fully operational unit like the system that powered San Francisco’s Schrank brothers to Lions track records in ’61 (8.66/183.28).

No wonder so few attendees manage to stagger back on Sunday morning, despite the allure of full-quarter-mile fuel racing. Most of these folks, too, were gone by the time final-round win lights went to Adam Sorokin (whose famous father won the March Meet here in ’66) in Top Fuel; John Hale, AA/FC; Ryan Davenport, A/FD; Don Enriquez, Jr., Fuel; Mike Smith, 7.0 Pro; Richard Phillips, 7.0 Pro-B; Mitchel Akers, A/FX; Tom Fowler, A/Gas; Jason Barta, Nostalgia; and Dan Myers, Pro Mod. Thus ended a near-weeklong orgy reminiscent of Indy’s Nationals when the Car Craft All-Star Drag Racing Team banquet, countless parties, and a downtown trade show tested after-hours endurance. That unique energy didn’t die in Indianapolis in the early ’90s, after all; it just moved west to Bakersfield.

13/16Like everyone else enjoying Sunday’s prerace activities, Dave McClelland was blown away by the national anthem rendered by Bakersfield’s own Kylee Leavitt. The seven-year-old’s entire family was treated to the weekend by an anonymous donor who annually sponsors tickets for a military veteran selected by the NHRA Museum staff.

Cheap Thrills

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Young people on a young person’s budget continue to prove that where there’s a will, there’s a way to enjoy vintage American iron. This ’50 Plymouth sat unwanted for the first two-thirds of Josh Tanner’s life, until he came up with $250. Now 30, Josh found and rebuilt another ’50-vintage flathead six, now enhanced by single-barrel Carters on the trick, integral intake/exhaust manifolds.

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The End

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This is one show that doesn’t quit at the finish line. Beyond the annual assemblage of traditional rods and customs beneath Famoso’s pitside scoreboard lies another quarter-mile of race cars, swap-meet vendors, and happy campers. No wonder the Reunion is referred to as “drag racing’s Woodstock.”